A Garden Party......

that I used to live in Port Aransas TX for about 30 years.....

This was before I moved north to live in the wilds of Minnesota for a while.....(have flown south again after the rash or tornadoes this year)

This is a short kind of story with a poem at the end. Since so many people have been publishing poems, I thought I would dig one out I wrote many years back about a weekly garden party in Port Aransas....something only us islanders really knew about....and the "Winter Texans" who would come to eat the fine food on this day every week.....

It was a poem I wrote for a Poetry Conventionn in Washington DC, but that is another story....

is quite a treat.

But to live there, you have to work really hard and enjoy island life. At first it appears to be quite glamorous, to live on an island. Soon you discover the hard part.

Working there is tricky at best. It runs mostly seasonally, with many of the businesses falling off during the winter months as the "tourists" are not present to keep the condos full and shop and eat at all the wonderful restaurants, of which there are many fine ones to choose from.

If you do not work for a condominium, which I was fortunate enough to be able to do, you face having your hours cut drastically during the winter months or losing your job all together and having to start all over again just before "Spring Break" hits in the early spring....

This means your job app is not exactly stable for attaining a job off the island as there are so many jobs you have gone through....It is a life we all love though, or we would not continue to live there.

On the island, there is no movie theater, shopping mall, no discount store such as WalMart, you have to go to the mainland for this....Yes, you are on an island. A body of land surrounded on all sides by water. The ocean.

And in rainy season, as you are at sea level, the island in the past (I hear they have corrected part of this problem now) would flood badly so that going down main street almost required a small boat, kayak, or some other means of flotation....I have seen people out there on main street on sufrboards just sitting there floating. LOL This was many years ago now and only an islander would do such a thing.

The road to go to Corpus Christi frequently floods along the 20 mile stretch it takes to get there as the road was built up over the sand. Island living requires some thought. Of course the tourists and the faithful winter texas enjoy it for it has many amenities to them.Such as great bird watching in the winter as the birds fly south to the island, and the loons from Minnesota go there as well....

A short trip on the ferry to get to the other mainland goes to Aransas Pass and Rockport also a long way to get to Corpus through Portland. In Rockport, there is a really good low cost seafood restaurant the winter texans and all "landlubbbers" enjoy. So on certain days, you are unable even in winter to get on the ferry to go shopping. As there is one grocery store on the island, in a pinch, it is helpful, but it is more economical to go to HEB or Walmart to shop....

At any rate...there is a lot of homegrown music on the island. Some of our musicians have hit the big time and we have a really good time listening to them...In the summer, once a week, they have live music at the City Harbor and all go with their lawn chairs and sit and listen.....

Since the island is comprised of tourist shops, condos, motels, rv parks, restaurants;  and miles of beach, what else is there to do?? My favorite time on the island was always Sunday.

The tourists were leaving, it was time to rest and go to Neptunes Bar for an afternoon of good home cooked barBques by Monty the owner and eat everyones' pot luck would go along with it. I always made potato salad which disappeared in a heartbeat.....Those were such fun times.

I long ago wrote a poem about this event, may you enjoy reading it and think about a barBque on huge pits, a garden party, for there is a huge garden at Neptunes outside an palm trees, ocean air....(and I quit drinking about 10 years ago, but go there just to enjoy)

Sunday Jam (copywrite Linda Hebert aka Wealthmadehealthy)

The sky was so blue
A wonderful hue
A breeze barely blowing
And the excitement was growing...

One by one they
Came though the door
Carrying guitar, flute,
Bass fiddle and more

They came from all around;
Not just from this island town

They formed their circle
On stool, foot or chair
With smiling eyes and narry a care

To fill the seats prepared
Each asking the other -
How was it they fared?

The pit was a’blazin
The sun goin’ down
Twas time to listen
To all songs renown

Finished fine tuning,
No time to rush
The garden grew quiet,
None disturbed the hush

Not one sound was heard
From leaf nor flower;
Not even a bird

While drinking their beer,
The crowd strained to hear
Each soft strumming sound
From the “Sunday Jammers

The best in town!

Not my finest, but it won me a trophy and a medal in a poetry contest.

Aloha!!